We were up at 05:15 to the sound of screaming Saker Falcon, packed our bags and after a quick coffee headed back up Barig Mountain at 06:00 for a last try for Hodgson’s Bush-chat. After climbing the steep grassy and rock strewn slopes of the mountains in the vehicles we parked at the summit and […]

As well as visiting local farms on Friday, I toured some sites east of the city starting at Ayn Hamran. The stop at Ayn Hamran was relatively short but it is never uninteresting. Though there were no wintering birds seen yet apart from a couple of common sandpiper and a grey wagtail. It’s always a […]

My Eid trip lasted from Tuesday afternoon until Saturday evening. It involved 3500 kilometres of travel and took me to several birding locations. This and the next four blogs will chronicle the results.I headed north out of Salalah on Tuesday and reached one of my favourite birding locations, Dowkah desert farm, with time to bird […]

I finally saw collared pratincole in Oman yesterday. It became bird number 295 on my Oman list. Thanks are due to Jens Eriksen for tipping me off that four were at Raysut settling pools. It wasn’t easy as I was at work at the time the message came through. I left work at the close […]

A rare bird usually found in Central Asia and Africa has been discovered at a nature reserve in Nottinghamshire. The white-winged black tern has attracted more than 800 birdwatchers to Attenborough since it was first spotted on Thursday. Experts said the bird could have been blown off its migration course as it would normally spend […]